1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the art of handling crop material and, more particularly, is concerned with apparatus for handling crop material packages such as large round bales or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For many years now, the predominate method of harvesting crop material such as hay or the like in the United States and many other countries has been to continuously pick up the previously cut and windrowed hay and form it into small wire- or twine-tied rectangular bales with an automatic baler, the bales normally ranging in weight from approximately 50-125 pounds.
Over the years, the automatic baler method of harvesting hay has usually necessitated the assistance of a crew of persons, in addition to the baler operator, in handling and storing the bales. In recent years, the availability of hay harvesting labor has become more scarce and labor costs have steadily risen. However, the impact of these unfavorable conditions on the popularity of the automatic baler method has been greatly minimized during the past decade by the introduction and growing commercial acceptance of the automatic bale wagon, which was originally illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,848,127 and more recently, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,502,230. In many parts of the United States, the automatic baler method has been largely integrated into a completely automatic, substantially one-man hay harvesting and handling system by the aforementioned bale wagon which is believed to have assured the continued, widespread viability and soundness of the automatic baler method of harvesting hay.
However, even in view of the widespread acceptance of the automatic baler method and the growing acceptance of the automatic bale wagon, other alternative methods of harvesting hay have periodically been proposed and introduced over the years.
One alternate method recently introduced utilizes a hay roll forming machine or baler which picks up loose windrowed hay or the like and forms it into a large round bale or roll normally ranging in weight from approximately 600 to 1500 pounds, in axial length from approximately 41/2 to 51/2 feet and in diameter from approximately 41/2 to 6 feet. This large round bale method of harvesting hay has been realizing considerable commercial acceptance in various regions of the United States. The success of this method is in part due to the acceptable moisture shedding and weathering attributes of the large roll when it is left resting in the field. Such attributes eliminate the necessity for immediate removal of the rolls from the field after they have been formed and deposited there by the baler, as is ordinarily required in the utilization of the small rectangular bale method in order to protect such bales from the sudden onset of inclement weather which frequently occurs in most regions of the country during the hay harvesting season.
While such attributes eliminate the need for the farmer to devote immediate attention to handling the large bales and thereby allow removal, if desired, at a later time during slack periods, efficient handling methods must be devised in order to make the large round bale or roll method feasible as a one-man hay harvesting and handling system for the large farmer. Since the size of such bales do not lend themselves to being handled by the manual labor of several persons, let alone one man, some mechanical means for handling them must be provided.
Single large round bale handling units currently available, such as three-point hitch, tractor mounted rear end loaders and tractor mounted front end loaders, are believed to be adequate for a farmer that has just a few bales to move. However, such units are uneconomical and inefficient for farming operations where large numbers of these bales must be removed from the field, transported to distant feedlots or storage areas and further handled at such locations in carrying out livestock feeding operations.